Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2014

Most technical entrepreneurs I know demand the discipline of a product specification or plan, and then assume that their great product will drive a great business. Serious investors, on the other hand, look for a professional business plan or summary first, and hardly ever look at the product plan. Development schedule and checkpoints.

Product 101

Product Entrepreneur Summary Activity 101

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2019

Despite their own focus on changing the world, they often forget that they too have to change rapidly and often as the market evolves. The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness.

Startup 94

Startup Training Statistics Summary 94

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

When a product is truly unique and demanded a retailer willingly promotes and sells it en masse in part because it does get margin on the good but also because it brings customers in the door who spend on other products. It is on this last point where Amazon is best positioned to dominate markets. So Why Does This Matter?

Product 296

Product Course Custom Customer 296

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 26, 2010

Every time I see a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a couple of years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. People are more demanding and have more choices than ever before.

Marketing 56

Marketing SEM Blogging Design 56

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2019

Some investors seem to focus wholly on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage, and in reality these are the core attributes for every funding equation. Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service.

Startup 97

Startup Education Custom Customer 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2016

Most technical entrepreneurs I know demand the discipline of a product specification or plan, and then assume that their great product will drive a great business. Serious investors, on the other hand, look for a professional business plan or summary first, and hardly ever look at the product plan. Development schedule and checkpoints.

Product 55

Product Startup Summary Entrepreneur 55

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Success in any business these days requires a constant flow of new and innovative solutions, to keep up with changes in the market, competition, and to attract new customers. Here is my summary of the ten top creativity mistakes we both still see too often: Criticize any new idea or employee suggestion.

Ideas 94

Ideas Framework Summary Organization 94

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

What sized team can I afford in order to sell, market & provide service to these customers? In the case of MakeSpace we had huge initial successes in New York City as Rahul led the scaling of our drivers, our trucks and our warehouses and we figured out the right price points to beat the local competition.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Custom Customer 286

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. As I like to say, “If you’re really on to an enormous idea then other people in the market are going to spot that and want to compete with you. They hired a marketing team to promote their products more broadly.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Many questioned whether it could survive under the fail whale, inevitable competition from Facebook, founder fighting, fights with 3rd-party developers let alone become a revolutionary business that could make money. So if you add people like me the target market is tens of millions. Far from it. Lots of it.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. People who believe the former believe that you should see the market demand before too many people know you’re “in market.”

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 7, 2017

Despite their own focus on changing the world, they often forget that they too have to change rapidly and often as the market evolves. The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness.

Startup 56

Startup Training Statistics Summary 56

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2014

Despite their own focus on changing the world, they often forget that they too have to change rapidly and often as the market evolves. The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness.

Entrepreneur 110

Entrepreneur Startup Training Statistics 110

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2013

Some investors seem to focus wholly on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage, and in reality these are the core attributes for every funding equation. Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service.

Startup 117

Startup Education Custom Customer 117

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2012

Some investors seem to focus wholly on the strengths of your management team, or your sustainable competitive advantage, and in reality these are the core attributes for every funding equation. Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service.

Startup 99

Startup Education Custom Customer 99

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2016

Some investors seem to focus wholly on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage, and in reality these are the core attributes for every funding equation. Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service.

Capital 58

Capital Startup Education Custom 58

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

Despite their own focus on changing the world, they often forget that they too have to change rapidly and often as the market evolves. The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness.

Startup 93

Startup Training Statistics Summary 93

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 19, 2017

Success in any business these days requires a constant flow of new and innovative solutions, to keep up with changes in the market, competition, and to attract new customers. Here is my summary of the ten top creativity mistakes we both still see too often: Criticize any new idea or employee suggestion.

Ideas 56

Ideas Framework Summary Organization 56

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

It’s insanely competitive to get into our industry so most have degrees from institutions like Stanford, Harvard, Wharton and University of Chicago (blatant plug ;-). SEO marketing vs. social marketing. Summary: Team Leadership skills, operating knowhow and industry knowledge are all tremendously important.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Summary Version. They help find talented film makers globally, enter them into competitions and advance the best of them toward winners that get to produce full-length films. And the fan producers all help market your show because they too want the attention. I repeat – free marketing. 200 million views.

Startup 380

Startup Media Content Platform 380

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 6, 2010

Despite their own focus on changing the world, they often forget that they too have to change rapidly and often as the market evolves. The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness.

Startup 78

Startup Training Statistics Summary 78

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. The more senior members you have (say you already have a CEO, CTO, VP marketing, VP Biz Dev, VP Products) then the less options you’ll need and vice versa.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

To be clear, I define a product specification as the technical definition of your product, to be used for development and testing purposes, with a quick business summary for context. Quantify the market opportunity in business terms. Include marketing, sales, and customer rollout plans. and trademarks.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

Summary notes, as always, provide below. they can build teams that really focus on building & marketing great products. My point of view is that most Internet markets create “winner take most&# outcomes where the largest player is super successful and disproportionally less for everybody else. Overture (Goto.com).

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Valuing any company can be difficult because it requires a degree of forecasting future growth & competition and ultimately the profits of the organization. Nearly EVERY smart VC I know has been talking privately for the past two years about how ridiculous valuations in private markets have gotten and how a reckoning was coming.

Startup 150

Startup Company Companies Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

He was raising money initially in the worst market in a decade (we met in 2008), he’s in his mid-40′s, is doing a mom’s site (he has no kids) and he has a JewFro. That said, a summary below is available for those who prefer to read the notes version. It could be a bubble or better balance of supply and demand.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I’ve raised in boom markets and when everybody thought the Internet was a fraud. Executive Summary. If you want to watch the video version summary of my advice on fund raising it’s here. You’re meeting people who can give you market insights and information. Of course much of it is conflicting.

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

Web Development & Marketing Technology) Exit: evolved into L90 (next company) Lesson: What you dont know cant stop you. Go-to-Market 5. We provide turnkey digital messaging appliances for enterprises, service providers and software developers to send marketing, e-commerce, CRM and customer service email. Startup 3.0: Be scrappy.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40